May & Baker Nigeria Plc has recorded growth in its profit to N489 million for the third quarter, 2016.

The company grew its sales by 12.5 per cent to N5.94 billion within the nine-month period to leverage on its improved production capacity and increasingly efficient cost management to mitigate the tough operating environment.

The nine-month report for the period ended September 30, 2016 released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, showed that turnover rose to N5.94 billion in 2016 as against N5.28 billion recorded in comparable period in 2015. While higher cost of sales dropped gross profit from N1.75 billion to N1.70 billion, the company took advantage of its internal cost management to boost operating profit from N470.4 million in third quarter 2015 to N489.5 million in third quarter, 2016.

Also, finance costs reduced considerably from N425.39 million in third quarter 2015 to N377.93 million in third quarter 2016. Profit before tax rose to N66.24 million in 2016 as against N60.63 million recorded in corresponding period of 2015. Profit after tax also grew to N44.4 million in 2016 compared to N41.2 million in 2015. With this, earnings per share improved from 4.21 kobo in third quarter 2015 to 4.53 kobo in third quarter 2016.

The third-quarter results further reinforced the steadiness of the company’s performance, after the leading healthcare company braced the odds to improve performance in the full-year 2015 and the first-half of this year.

Managing Director, May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, said that the third-quarter results showed the commitments of the board and management to long-term growth of the company.

He said the management of the company remained focused on improving the performance by curtailing costs and exploring value-adding business opportunities to create a more robust base that can sustain long-term growth.